June 12, 2010: The Limitation of our Pursuits

For most of us, our lives are not lacking in artha and kāma. We are not struggling to survive, and we manage to fulfill whatever desires come to our mind. If, on top of this, we keep dharma as the guiding factor in our pursuits, and try to grow as human beings, we could say that our lives are pretty much complete. What more could one want? Yet we all know that despite having this much, we never have complete satisfaction. There is always more to pursue, accomplish, and become. It seems as though we are bound to our dissatisfaction no matter what we do.

From our culture, however, we learn of people who were satisfied with themselves and their lives, often without having or being very much at all. The question inevitably comes to our minds: is it possible that the key to happiness lies somewhere other than where we have sought it our whole lives? We will see the answer our śāstra gives to this question.